Noticias
2 June - SDGs: What Lessons can be learned from the MDGs?
The International Budget Partnership (IBP) has published a budget brief which explores good practices and lessons learned from monitoring government budgets and expenditure on the MDGs. The aim of this brief is to assist with monitoring, reporting, and accountability, in respect of the SDGs.
Featuring summaries of case studies from 11 countries, the brief presents findings from research by DFI in collaboration with IBP that draws on DFI’s Government Spending Watch (GSW) initiative, which monitored MDG-related spending across 72 developing countries. The research looked at budget transparency practices, the relative ease of identifying MDG, budget classification and presentation for both planned and actual spending.
To support this brief, DFI produced a background paper prepared for IBP which aims to establish lessons to inform advocacy efforts to promote greater budget transparency and accountability in the SDGs implementation framework.
22-23 May - Debt Management Facility Stakeholders’ Forum, Vienna, Austria
DRI participated in the World Bank Debt Management Facility Stakeholder Forum in Vienna, taking part in the ICG governance meeting of the facility, and making a presentation on Debt Sustainability Status and Prospects in the Forum itself. The presentation, reported on the uses by countries of the LIC DSF template, on debt sustainability issues and reviewed the main conclusion of a study undertaken by DRI for DFID and the AfDB.
2 May - The pitfalls of Doing Business
An article published on the Interpress News Service Agency delves into the details of the World Bank’s Doing Business in an attempt to lift the veil on what underpins the ranking and reveal its pitfalls.
The authors find, among other things, that countries promoting lower corporate tax and more exemptions are ranked more favourably than others, therefore encouraging harmful tax competition among developing countries. They call for the World Bank to focus efforts on assisting developing countries in improve tax administration to enhance collection and compliance, and to reduce evasion and avoidance.
20 April - Finance Ministers from Francophone LICs Meet in Washington
For the past seven years, finance ministers from low-income Francophone countries have met in the margins of the Annual Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank to discuss financing for development. Under the aegis of the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF), DFI helped convene the latest meeting in Washington on 20th April.
28 February - The Danger of PPPs: the UK’s Experience
A new briefing by the Jubilee Debt Campaign (UK) focuses on the failures of PPPs in the UK. Aimed at an international audience to inform civil society and decision makers across the world, “The UK’ PPPs Disaster: Lessons on Private Finance for the Rest of the World” sets the record straight about the true record of PPPs in the UK, by revealing the shortcomings of what is an unpopular financing mechanism.
